Salads are one of those meals you can enjoy any time of the year. A versatile dish you can change up with the seasons featuring fresh produce or ingredients, proteins, beans, lentils, pasta, rice, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, fresh herbs – really whatever floats your boat for the most part can go into your salad as long as you create a balance.
For example add fresh sliced brussels sprouts and pears to your slaw like in this Winter Brussels Sprout Slaw with Pancetta and you have a winter salad. Fresh summer blueberries help create this Blueberry & Halloumi Quinoa Salad with Charred Corn giving you a delicious summer salad. Salads can be many things any time of the year as long as you have a little imagination and some great ingredients!
Working with Feel Good Elderberry Syrup this month, we wanted to create a salad dressing using the four main elements of a dressing: extra virgin olive oil (oil), white balsamic vinegar (acid), Elderberry Syrup (sweet) and salt + pepper (salt). While elderberry syrup is not that sweet, it definitely brings the sweet element and is as healthy as using maple syrup or honey.
A fifth element involved in making salad dressings, (aromatic) can include shallots, chives and herbs, however we were very happy with the taste of the dressing and left it as is. Our salad ingredients are a combination of Fall ingredients like squash and pomegranates, smokey gorgonzola cheese, slightly bitter escarole & arugula and salty prosciutto. Believe me when I tell you this all came together beautifully!
- 2 cups escarole
- 2 cups arugula
- 1 cup butternut squash, cut into small cubes and roasted
- ⅓ cup toasted hazelnuts
- ½ cup pomegranate seeds
- 100 grams or a couple slices prosciutto (the good stuff)
- 1 honey crisp apple, cored and sliced thin
- 160 grams smoked gorgonzola, crumbled
- Dressing
- 2 tbsp Feel Good Syrup
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- sea salt & cracked black pepper to taste
- Tear up your escarole and add to bowl or platter with arugula. Scatter on squash, hazelnuts, pomegranate seeds, prosciutto, apple and gorgonzola.
- Whisk together feel good elderberry syrup, extra virgin olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper until thick and creamy.
- Pour dressing over salad and serve.
With colds and flu’s already circulating through schools, offices and our house (tis the season), we have been taking the syrup regularly to keep our immune systems healthy, boosted and ready for travel to Indonesia next month. Elderberries are a natural anti-inflammatory and high in flavonoids (plant-based antioxidants). It’s these flavonoids that help prevent damage to the body’s cells and boost the immune system. That’s why studies show elderberries are known to be effective in treating colds and flu!
Feel Good Syrup continues to expand their syrup offering throughout Western Canada making it easier to find and purchase the product. Just this month Feel Good Elderberry Syrup became available to purchase at Blush Lane Organic Market in Alberta. You can also find it at Amaranth Foods, and via Spud.ca. Be sure to follow the Feel Good Syrup website for updates on new retail locations as they come on board and company news, plus recipes!
We are working in collaboration with Feel Good Syrup on this post. All opinions, views expressed and recipe development are, as always, my own.
